House

So a few posts ago I mentioned that I wanted to paint an old dresser. I know I promised to show you the other two rooms we re did, but we have had a lot of people staying at our house this summer, and TBH they are still messy. Ha.

So Y’all can just get a dresser update today;)

It wasn’t as terrible as I thought. Hurrah.

So, without further ado, here it is!

It looked like this before.

And here it is now!

It’s actually more grey than this shows.

I looked high and low for dresser knobs, and I found some I loved but they were all like SIX DOLLARS PER KNOB.

Which, for 8 knobs, it would be… Expensive.

And I wasn’t up for that. So in the end I got these beauties for under $2 each from.. Home Depot;)

I like ’em.

I also had this mat (I brought with me all the way from Australia!) It’s my mediation mat, and I added it to the top of the dresser to give it more spunk and color. I kinda dig it.

And of course, I have started a little nursery library #BookWorm. See any of your favorites up there? Any good suggestions to add?

Next up on the painting list, we have this little lamp! Any ideas? I’m thinking coral?

We had been going on it since Nov. of last year. I know. That’s a shamefully long time.

In our rather weak defense, we had christmas, an over-seas trip, a baby announcement, a few other weekends away and dog thrown in. So we were busy, just maybe a little slow in the house department.

Anywhoo, here we are.

New carpet and all.

We had extra motivation cause my parents were coming over, and I’m not sure they would have slept on a concrete floor with no bed frame, closet or clean bathroom.
So, that gave us a little kick up the toosh.

I don’t have many (Or any?!) photos of the old rooms to show you *Rookie Error*

But i’ll show you some pictures of the new ones anyway, cause I want too.

Here is our Living Room;

Nice new carpet! YAY. And I LOVE the green/blue of the wall.
I dunno what to do with all those cords in the corner.
Ideas anyone?

And our little table. I know. I have a lot of teal-y colour in my house;)

Alfie wanted in a photo;)

We are still de cluttering, un packing from the carpet installment and our little vacay and all the things, so it’s a little C R A Z Y and most the house it still a pit. That’s my excuse anyway, and I’m keeping it. So Ha.

And our Master;

Fairy lights though. ❤
And after ALL the 27 color swatches we tested, we both LOVE the grey.
Just as well;)

We need a new curtain color, WAY to much grey going on up in there girlfriend. Any suggestions? I was thinking a blue/green/teal.. incase I havent got enough already. Haha.

Some people are crazy cat ladies, I am a crazy scarf lady. They even have there own basket. I may need an intervention soon.

This week I’m working on the Nursery and Guest Room, so stay tuned for that;)

I have decided to paint this huge dresser and re vamp it for the baby. We have tons of paint left after all, and now I have the DIY bug.
Altho mine must have glitches, cause my DIYs rarely turn out. WHATEVZ. I going for it. I’ll update you, and you can all watch me fail. Lucky its going in the closet;)

If it works out half well, I’m going to tackle some other wooden piece that are kinda knock about and need a little TLC. I know. I’m channeling my inner Joanna Gaines;)

And then last week my lovely hubby announced that maybe we should move houses and buy a fixer upper.

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Incase you didn’t know, we are doing an august challenge head here to read about it.

Before I jump, I want to stress again that there is NOTHING wrong with having things, having money or a big house. This is simply an exercise in evaluating the things we have & buy, what we do with our possessions and our wealth.

So here we go!

Thoughts;

It’s hard. Good and fun, but its been kinda hard. I can’t believe how many times I have to stop myself from buying things. Eekkk. I didn’t know I was THIS bad:/
Anyway, I am learning.

You don’t waste food. When you are trying to keep a low-budget and live simply, food waste isn’t an option. I have discovered new ways to minimize it.

Here are Six;-Eating left overs for lunch.
-Having a pot luck style dinner
-Freeze fruit not being eaten for smoothies
-Make soup stock with bones and old veggies before they go bad
-Make easy fried rice for dinner to use up anything left over in the veggie bins
-Work out how much you actually really eat. This is key. Work out how much fresh food you ACTUALLY eat, and ONLY buy that much.

De cluttering becomes addictive, an addiction I have apparently picked up. It’s freeing up so much more space and I am becoming happier.

I have more time. Since saying no to things that would lead me to spend money like shopping or heading to coffee shops and being pretty organized in when, where and how often I go out to the store for food, I have more time!
Plus the less stuff you have, the less you clean! Hurrah for that.

I am learning to connect better. Since we aren’t going and doing date nights that involve money, like movies, we do things like beach picnics or walks together, and so, actually spend more time talking and connecting. Plus, having people come over for afternoon tea instead of meeting them out makes it really easy to connect better as there is less noises and business.

Possessions don’t matter; People do. As I was saying last week, it’s people that matter. Putting time, money and energy into them instead of other things is what this is all about.

While some of you don’t need to do this whole huge challenge to see that, I know I did.

I could plan the best date night in the world, but if I don’t connect or talk to my husband, what good is it? I could have the cleanest house, but if I do it instead of having people over, what benefit?

Minimal doesn’t have to be or look a certain way. I see a lot of people who do this only have black and white. I don’t like that. So i’m not doing it that way. I thought at the start I did, now I realize that it’s about culling & correcting what I need to, rather than a one size fits all. Plus, I love color and brightness;)

Be real. Start slow and be real. Instead of throwing everything out, only have 10 things and moving into a 600 sqf house all in the same week, go slow and be realistic. Purge your closet, sure, but so you just go out and buy more. Have a look at your budget and think about your spending, but maybe not cut your grocery to $10. Ha.

Anyway, we are into the fourth week, and doing well!

If you are joining me in this challenge, how have YOU been doing? Any tips and tricks to share?

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The other night, after a lovely Thai dinner date, Seth & I went to the Dollar tree, which was just a few stores down from the Thai place. And I discovered something…

WE LOVE DOLLAR STORES.

We went a little… crazy. Ha. Everything is ACTUALLY a dollar. And they have some of the most random stuff, which makes it super fun. We always see what the craziest thing we can find it. Anyway, we had fun. And got a fair few things;)

I did discover that dollar stores are really good for a few things though. And I totally didn’t expect it!! Next time your near a Dollar Tree, check it out for these things:

Wall Decal/ Decorations: We picked up these sticky wall decal things for only $1 each! And they are AWESOME! They add a little bit of something to the bare walls we have, without being to much or to big. And if we don’t like them, they way they look or want to move them, we can just simply pull them off. None of the paint comes off either! Yay!! Winning.

They also have a TON of bible verse ones that are really pretty! We now have about 10 round our house. Heehee. I might even go back for more.
I also got some Fall decorations from there too!! So nice to add some colour around, and get a little seasonal, without breaking the budget.

Notebooks/Planners: I got a super cute, nice little bound journal for my Thankful Thoughts Journal. And another one for my bible study for only a dollar. They are really nice, such a good size and super cute, which is, you know, super important;)
Sometimes journals can be really expensive, and hard to find! So I was so happy when I found these ones! Now I know were to look:)

Puzzles: We got this super cute little 500 piece puzzle of a little french town. Its super cute, little, and SO relaxing to do.

We have been enjoying just sitting down after dinner and working on it together for half an hour, chatting away and having some tea. So nice to spend some quite relaxing time together. And even better when the puzzles are only $1! Its our new date night thing to do!

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And six months, two weeks of paint, celling repairs, electrical work and one very messy bathroom later we have a new one. Let me tell you the story.

Way back in december my parents came out to visit. It was then, at one of our MANY trips to Home Depot that I decided we needed a new light in our bathroom. Our light didn’t work real well, the cover had come off and the fan didn’t work, which made it kinda.. muggy. So we picked out a new one, one with a nice fan and nice looking style. And it sat in our room for FIVE months. You don’t want to rush these things, you know 😉

Well, things happened, and we finally set to work on getting it installed. Only to find out it would be a little more.. intense than we had first thought. Side note: Isn’t it always like this! I mean, home repairs and upgrades are NEVER easy and straight forward are they!? IF you have had a success story of a simple repair, please share. But I highly anticipate that there have been zip.

Moving on.

Since it was 103 times more involved, we ended up recruiting more people.. In the form of my Father in Law and Seth’s uncle. There was a few hours of work put in by these lovely men * THANKS A TON* and several more trips to Home Depot. Lucky we can walk there, I tell you! We finally got to the last stage, Painting and setting the light cover.

*Enter wife bragging*
So, It had taken a fair fews weeks to get this all done, and I was relaying to Seth my thoughts on the topic. We had been busy the past few days, and the bathroom still sat messy with things everywhere. I mean. All over. Well. Let me just say this. He is the sweetest. Ever.

I went to bed monday night, exhausted. He stayed up after he came home from work (he comes home late anyway!) And did ALL the priming and painting left to do and fitted the light. AND THEN in the morning woke up early at 5:30 before I did to clean it all up so that I would wake up and could have my bathroom again! WHAT A BABE! Man. He’s the best! Love that guy!

So. I would now like to show you our new light/fan! HURRAH.

Also, On one of our *many* trips to home depot I got some new hallway lights too! They are so pretty!

A big hurrah for home renovations.. And having a clean bathroom again!